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Behind the scenes of Glen Eira’s $11 million Booran Reserve project

By intouch * posted 25-07-2018 16:03

  

With the least amount of public open space available to any metro municipality in Victoria, Glen Eira City Council needed to get creative.


Screen_Shot_2018-07-25_at_3_46_52_PM.pngMark Judge, the council’s Group Manager Projects and Infrastructure, explains why finding more recreational space for the community was essential.

“We've got increasing population growth and activity centres that are being developed that are going to bring more people in, so the importance of having open space is ever increasing,” he says. 

Constructed in 1883, the former 1.6Ha Caulfield Water Service Reservoir – decommissioned in the 1970s and now known as Booran Reserve – provided an ideal development site.

“It's so unique. It's not every day as an engineer you get to work on a project that's got an old reservoir involved in it,” Judge says.

Looking at the ambitious scope of the project, Judge knew it wouldn’t be a walk in the park. 

“When I first got introduced to this project, it was introduced to me as a landscaping job. My first comments were, ‘No, this is not a landscaping job. This is a massive civil engineering project’,” he explains.

“It had everything from hydraulic engineering, mechanical and electrical engineering, structural engineering, and civil engineering – basically every kind of engineering you could think of went into the solutions there.

“I think that the importance of having engineers involved in delivering these types of projects, has been proven, because we've got significant additional value out of the project, we've been able to implement ecologically sustainable development (ESD) goals and that's really given us some project benefits.”

Opened to the public in April 2017, what was once a unused and inaccessible site is now a vibrant, state of the art space for the community, incorporating a major playground, sports courts, a contemplation zone in the sunken sluice gate area with a water feature, open lawn space, interactive games and artwork, picnic shelters with barbeques, two toilet blocks, a water play area, architectural lighting and CCTV. The space has retained its history and connection to water with the inclusion of educational display panels, and includes water sensitive urban design (WSUD) with information signage.

IPWEA Victoria recognised Booran Reserve at its 2018 Excellence Awards, with the project team thrilled to win the Capital Project >$5 million category, as well as receiving a commendation in the Excellence in Environmental Sustainability category. It also claimed the AIPM Victoria 2017 Award for Excellence in the Sustainable Project Category, Stormwater Victoria’s 2018 Excellence in Infrastructure award and was a finalist in the 2017 Premiers Sustainability Awards.

The project was managed from start to finish by the council’s in-house team, using specialist external design consultants for the design stage.

ESD

Screen_Shot_2018-07-25_at_3_50_55_PM.pngIntegrating ESD principles into the project was one of the most exciting aspects, Judge says.

Significantly, more than 95% of the existing site materials were re-used in construction. This included on-site concrete crushing and screening of the old reservoir walls and base, and retention of some key structures and elements as heritage features.

Judge says recycling saved about 70% on demolition and formation costs.

“That allowed us to put that extra $2.5 million into the water play features and the playground. If we hadn't been able to do that, we would have been struggling to deliver what you see out there now within the allocated budget,” Judge says.

In addition, a stormwater harvesting system enables 500KL of water to be stored underground, then treated and re-used for irrigation and toilet flushing. Re-use of captured water provides up to 64.2% of the annual water demand for the site.

Judge says the stormwater harvesting system has already pulled its weight.

“We had a major storm down here and those WSUD bio-swales filled up and stored water for a significant amount of time. If we hadn't had done that, the whole site would have drained immediately down into the lower catchment area further exacerbating flooding issues downstream.”

The site is also equipped with automated systems that data harvest and control energy management, irrigation and lighting. Solar power was installed to offset day time running of an underground water play plantroom, irrigation plant room, two toilet blocks and CCTV.

“We've got an energy management system in there, which allows us to record potable water and recycled water usage throughout the whole site and energy usage which can be apportioned directly against each feature. We've got solar energy generation, and we can work out exactly how much we've offset against standard forms of energy,” Judge says.

Using the Reserve to educate the public about WSUD has also been a big plus.

“We’ve been able to educate the public by running community tours of the whole facility. We've also got signage up there, so school groups and the like can come and learn about WSUD,” Judge says.

Challenges

Screen_Shot_2018-07-25_at_3_51_56_PM.pngOne of the project's trickiest aspects was the site demolition.

“Doing the demolition on a site like that and in a suburb when you've got surrounding residences is a massive challenge,” Judge explains.

“We couldn't use pneumatic tools, because that would have created too much vibration and potentially damage surrounding property. We had to look at other options.

“We had to be very careful how we actually took down the old wall. We proposed to use chemical bursting which didn't end up working, but fortunately for us we had a number of back up plans.” 

The concrete walls proved too inconsistent for chemical bursting to be completed within an acceptable timeframe. So, the team changed methodology early on and opted for hydraulic bursting and shearing, which was very successful and worked well with the adoption of on-site material recycling.

They then brought in a mobile screening and crushing plant, which allowed the concrete to be used as fill materials.

“We were also able to recover a couple of really large-scale water valves and clean those up, and use them as sculptures in the park,” Judge says.

The site itself posed a challenge; the existing walls were 3m above the road level and the base of the reservoir was 2m below road level, creating 5m-high internal walls.

“For us to be able to get surveyors and our engineering guys inside there, we had to take down that and provide that separate access point, which was challenging,” Judge says.

Then, there was the need to wrangle the underground stormwater harvesting tanks.

“The whole site drained to that low point where the harvesting tanks were sited. We had issues with the potential for those tanks to actually float out of the ground, so we had to put sub-surface drains in there to relieve hydrostatic pressure and make sure we didn't lose or move those three meter diameter pipes. They're pretty heavy, but you don't need much water actually to float them, surprisingly. They were some of the things we had to work around that were quite challenging,” Judge said. 
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The playground also features the largest dome net climbing structure in the southern hemisphere, transported from Korea.

“We had to get interpreters involved because we had to look at converting the standards that they worked to, which were based on US standards to Australia standards, as well as the interpretation of what the Korean engineers were telling us as well. That was a challenge, but it always makes the project interesting!” Judge says.

“Some of the feedback we get, which is very pleasing, is the fact that parents are saying to us, ‘Thank you for building a playground that's not sterile, that challenges my kids to take risks and climb,’ because you look at it, it's fairly high, but the kids just take to it.”

Finally, the scope of the project meant works had to be conducted in multiple stages to avoid delays. Adopting an agile approach gave the team the ability to commence works in stages as the design progressed.

The outcome

Booran Reserve has become a well-loved part of the community, with Judge labelling the usage as “phenomenal”.

“Every day there are people in that park. Every night after school, there are more people in that park. During school holidays, you can't move – the take up and the usage is absolutely phenomenal. You get all ages; you can see the really little toddlers, they'll run through the water features or the water play, even in winter. From a community perspective, or a social perspective, it's fantastic,” he says.

“It's why people in this office come to work; to see the looks on the faces of the community when we let the fences down and they actually get to use it. That's a massive reward to the project team.
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“We have a very similar project team that also worked on Glen Eira Sports and Aquatic Centre, which is the biggest job we've ever done. That was sort of heading towards $50 million. It's the same feeling. Once the place opens and the community starts using it, you go wow. That's what it's for. That's why we did it. That's why we put in the effort into it. It's getting that gratification from seeing the community using what we've built.”

Meet the engineer

Booran Reserve Project Director Mark Judge has been involved in the delivery of infrastructure projects across all asset classes for more than 35 years with the majority being within the Victorian local government sector. He holds a degree in Civil Engineering with Honours, a Master of Engineering in Construction Management and a MBA in Technology Management. He is a Chartered Professional Engineer, Certified Practising Portfolio Executive and currently holds the position of Group Manager Projects and Infrastructure at Glen Eira City Council. Judge’s passion is for delivering sustainable infrastructure for the benefit of local communities.
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